New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party has announced the first list of 195 candidates in 16 states and two union territories for the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
As per the list, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be contesting from Varanasi for the third time, having earlier represented the constituency in 2014 and 2019.
The candidates announcement comes days after the BJP held its central election committee meeting to finalise the candidates. The list also includes 34 Union Ministers and MoS and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and two former CMs as well.
BJP announced 51 seats from Uttar Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, 9 seats from Telangana, 11 from Assam, 11 each from Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, 5 from Delhi, 2 from J&K, 3 from Uttarakhand, 2 from Arunachal Pradesh and 1 each from Goa, Tripura, Andaman & Nicobar and Daman & Diu.
The other big names featured in the list of 195 candidates include Union ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Mansukh Mandaviya, Smriti Irani, Bhupender Yadav, Kiren Rijiju, Dr. Jitendra Singh and others.
The BJP also changed four out of five seats in Delhi, fielding late Sushma Swaraj's daughter Bansuri from New Delhi. The BJP dropped Harsh Vardhan and Meenakshi Lekhi from Chandni Chowk and New Delhi respectively.
The other candidates for Delhi are Praveen Khadelwal from Chandni Chowk seat, Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi, Kamaljit Sehrawat from West Delhi and Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi.
Addressing a press conference at party headquarters in New Delhi, BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde said Out of 195 candidates, 47 are youth, 28 are women, 27 are SC candidates and 18 ST candidates. We're fielding 57 OBC candidates, he said.
BJP renominated Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and sitting MP Jugal Kishore from Udhampur and Jammu parliamentary seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
Bollywood actor Hema Malini will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Mathura. She has represented Mathura constituency since 2014.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is all set to contest the Lok Sabha Election 2024 from Vidhisha in MP, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to contest from Guna in Madhya Pradesh.
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is an MP from Bhopal, hasn't been given a ticket to contest polls from this seat. Alok Sharma has been fielded from Bhopal this time.
In Uttar Pradesh, Union Minister Smriti Irani to contest from Amethi, Rajnath Singh will again contest from Lucknow.
Amit Shah will contest from Gandhinagar and Mansukhi Mandaviya to contest from Porbandar.
In Rajasthan, BJP fields Union ministers Arjun Meghwal and Bhupendra Yadav from Bikaner and Alwar respectively. Speaker Om Birla will contest from Kota.
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju to contest from Arunachal West seat, while Sarbananda Sonowal from Dibrugarh in Assam.
In Southern states, Union Minister V Muralidharan to contest from Attingal & Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar to contest from Thiruvananthapuram. He will contest against incumbent MP Shashi Tharoor of Congress.
In West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar fielded from Balurghat, Saumitra Khan has been fielded from Bishnupur while Locket Chatterjee will contest from Hooghly.